Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Hen – 10

「さくらとねむりのラビリンス」 (Sakura to Nemuri no Rabirinsu)
“Sakura and the Labyrinth of Sleep”

TWO CARDS IN ONE EPISODE?

General Impressions

Man, is it Christmas already? Because at the rate things are going, we’re going to have some bonkers episodes soon. Lame attempts at comedy aside, this week’s episode was actually really fun even when you take out the obvious ploy at nostalgia with Sakura in those freaking awesome rollerblades.

Starting with the obvious point, I thought it was pretty nice of the story to once again throw Akiho back into the midst of things. Especially after she abruptly disappeared as the story tried to push things forward when it came to the whole Sakura x Syaoran side of things. However, after this week’s episode and a rather ominous angle of a certain butler, I don’t think it’s all that crazy to think that Akiho may have absolutely nothing to do with the masked figure appearing in Sakura’s dreams. Besides being way too easy and/or obvious, it’s tough to think someone like Akiho would be able to attack Sakura without even feeling a tiny bit of guilt. That said, I don’t think it’d be too far out there if there was someone near her that might be pulling the strings behind all of this. I wonder who it could be though.

Moving on from conspiracy theories about who’s out to get Sakura, this week’s card captures were definitely on point when it comes to upping the ante. With a blast of nostalgia mixed in with some impressive card slinging, it actually felt like Sakura was in a bit of danger while trying to capture the Snooze and Labyrinth cards. If I had one minor gripe though, it would have to be just how often she uses the gravitation card. As cool as it is, it’d be nice if she busted out the Flight card a little more often since it just looks so damn good when it’s in use.

All-in-all, a pretty damn good episode that I think played to all of its strengths. With just the right mix of plot moving exposition and fun card capturing, it truly feels like the show has finally hit a good point where each episode should be just a good, if not better from the previous one. And the cherry on top? It looks like things are about to really kick into gear with all the major players finally (hopefully based on the preview sequence) appearing in one episode. Anyways, I’ll catch you guys next week where I hopefully won’t be late with my post due to so much darn traveling. See you then!

And now they reference Sealed Card content. Boy, was I surprised. Since Eriol’s house is still there, I assumed no Void card at all. And while maybe that’s still true, apparently some events of the movie still happened. Which begs the question, how did Sakura officially confess to Syaoran? Was there a Void card afterall, only not sealed below Eriol’s house? Or did the confession happened after the play, without any interruptions from the Void? Or did the bear Sakura made count as a confession?

It’s funny how there’s two mysteries in this show. The one about the clear cards and how the continuity with the previous entries shapes up. Is it odd that I’m somewhat more invested in the later than the former?

My GOD, Keima Katsuragi has a law (it is in the manga), cant remember it exactly but it states that “if a new character shows up during the time there’s something major event (or bad) happening, that new character is more likely a BIG TROUBLE”. Kaito and AKIHO are both new characters and all flags points that they are indeed big trouble. — Therefore, My Lord has proven his heavenly wisdom again

…I am embarrassed to say this but, Card Captor Sakura got me hooked on roller blades, been on these footwear with wheels for twenty years thanks to CCS. I bought some of the original blades that were built with out their rubber break pads and stopping is by a skill called T stopping. To think CCS made it cool to blade for me.

Not just that – is Sakura re-capturing her own cards for someone else? None of the others can detect the magic of the new cards, the new cards are more vicious than before, the names are different, Sakura isn’t tired by capturing cards, etc. Almost like someone else is going to take all the cards away from Sakura once she has them all again.